No invitation to the royal wedding is no big deal

Louise Carroll

Monday

Apr 25, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 25, 2011 at 11:23 AM

I didn't get an invitation to the royal wedding and I'm not angry about it. But since I didn't get an invitation, I'm not sending a wedding gift. I had a perfectly, almost-new red satin sheet and a silver-plated olive fork all wrapped and ready to go, but no invitation, no gift.

I am not going to watch the wedding live. Not because I'm holding a grudge about not being invited, I just don't feel very weddingish at 4 a.m. I didn't even get up at that time for my own wedding or anyone else's that I can think of. I'll probably watch some of the reruns.

Billions of people all over the world are expected to be watching the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton, but I read only a little over half of the British people will be watching. It is a national public holiday there so they won't be going to work and they don't have to get up at 4 a.m. so what is their problem? It is going to be broadcast in public places so even if their television isn't working and they don't feel like lining up along the streets to get a peek at the bride and groom, they have no excuse.

I sort of expected an invitation because I, too, am a queen. I am Queen Louise of the Ravishing Royal Damsels of the Red Hat Society and we are really ravishing. When you see us in all our bling, we are worth a second or third look. When Queen Elizabeth visited the United States she wore a red hat and I thought that meant that we had a connection. We were sisters under the hat. Of course, I understand that she has a vast kingdom and I have a small group of older ladies who like to dress up and wear red hats. That is a big difference but a queen is a queen and should be treated with respect. My queenly duties are somewhat different than Elizabeth's. A Red Hat queen is the one who makes reservations, plans and coordinates events; in other words, does the work. I'm sure Elizabeth has all sorts of people to do those duties and many more.

We've had a lot of weddings in our family and we have never invited the royals so there is no reason I should have expected to get an invitation except for our Red Hat connection. An invitation would have involved travel and a lot of expense and after what I spent on that silver-plated olive fork, well there wasn't much left to go zipping off to the British Isles.

There are all sorts of rules of etiquette for meeting or interacting with royalty and I don't have a lot of time to practice all those things and I'm not sure my knees would be able to execute a proper curtsy. Both of these knees have been replaced and work just fine but curtsying is not something they usually do. I heard that men just bow their heads to the queen. Oh, honestly, is that sex discrimination or what?

Men can get down on one knee when they propose marriage so their knees are more used to that sort of bending. Royals, they can make their own rules and they have a bunch of them.

I remember when Princess Elizabeth married Philip in November of 1947. Someone gave me a booklet with many pictures of the wedding and I recall being very impressed. I didn't have a television and I don't remember anyone who did so we didn't ‘see' the wedding. Television covered the almost fairy-tale wedding of Diana, Princess of Wales, when she married Charles and I recall her beauty and the pageantry of the occasion.

No, I'm not getting up at 4 a.m. to watch Will and Kate, but I will be interested in the news coverage and I'm sure there will be a lot. I'll probably oohh and ahhh over the beauty and pageantry of the day even if I didn't get invited.

Louise Carroll can be reached online at wlc7@verizon.net.

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